Alex Yi Retires
April 8th, 2008 . 4:21 pm . By: Buzz Carrick
FC Dallas announced today via their blog that Alex Yi has retired in order to pursue his college degree. Yi has long suffered with recurring hamstring problems and has been unable to determine the root cause. The FCD blog referenced Yi’s latest setback and his quest to finish his education for his decision to step aside at this time.
Some rumors had surfaced late last week that Yi’s days in Dallas might be coming to an end, and I’m glad to now see it appears to be on his own terms. It’s never good when an athlete’s career ends prematurely through injury. I have always found Yi to be bright and intelligent when I’ve had chances to talk to him. He always saw the lay of the land and at the age of 26 he may have decided to precede with his life after soccer rather than continue his injury fight. It’s perhaps no coincidence then that the left sided St. Lucian defender Sheldon Emmanuel has arrived on trial this weekend and in Monday’s scrimmage played the position most frequently occupied by Yi when healthy this year. With Yi’s departure and Wagenfuhr’s worrisome concussion, FCD certainly seems in need of a left sided defender. Unless Emmanuel has an unknown green card he will require an international spot if FC Dallas does indeed chose to add him. The Red Stripes have been waiting for the hopefully forthcoming green card for Marcelo Saragosa which would certainly allow them to accommodate Emmanuel, or a different international for that matter. FC could also trade for an international spot, a someone pricy proposition, or trade/waive another of their eight internationals. Yi’s retirement seems likely only the first of several possible roster moves that might soon take place. 15 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
True shame… one of the good guys.
Great guy and certainly the Hoops most athletic player on the backline. Forget about the leftsided defender we just need some good defenders other than Moor.
could they loaned out Oduro or Saragosa for the year or until Marcelo gets his green card?
Loaning out a player doesn’t remove them from the roster.
If they are going to juggle the roster to bring in another international, I want it to be a DP caliber player. It makes no sense to make a bunch of moves to bring in a role player from a lower level league. If there is a chance (no matter how small) of landing a player like Riquelme (who has been rumored to have interest in the league) then I want to have the roster space to make that happen.
A shame about his health, but good luck to him in his intellectual pursuits. A very nice guy by all accounts.
he’s a smart one, wish him lots of luck!
what rumors last week? i didn’t hear anything going on . . .were they seriously thinking of cutting him?
[...] Yi, buena suerte! The news caught us off guard and by surprise. However, upon further reflection it does make sense. Dealing [...]
Eva, not all rumors are the wide spread public kind. Some of them travel very small circles. It wasn’t a rumor that he was going to be cut, just that something was up in regards to Yi.
Too bad about him retiring he is one of the good ones. Best of luck pursuing the college degree.
If the team is itching to bring in another defender and is willing to burn an SI spot to do it, why not making a trade for Wilman Conde?
Buzz,
Do you have any thoughts on if SM would be interested in Conde?
[...] Alex Yi retired yesterday, in case you missed [...]
[...] Also farewell to Alex Yi, we’ll miss you! [...]
Skeeter, the problem with Conde is that he wants to play in NY. If he were willing to play somewhere else he would just play in Chicago. Chicago already nixed one trade to another team because they thought said team would turn around and sell him to NY.